Foresight launches £20 million

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Foresight Group (“Foresight”), the leading independent alternative asset manager with a strategic focus on private equity, environmental and infrastructure, on behalf of the Board of Foresight Solar VCT has announced the launch of a £20 million fundraising for Foresight Solar VCT through the issue of new “C” shares.

This new share issue, which has received the highest VCT ranking this season from Martin Churchill’s Tax Efficient Review www.taxefficientreview.com, will capitalise on Foresight’s extensive experience in renewable energy and follows the recently announced launch of a £20 million fund raising for Foresight Solar EIS Fund 2. Funds raised will be invested in UK Solar Power Plants where investors can benefit from the enhanced revenue streams possible under the Government’s Renewable Obligation (RO) scheme. In addition to income derived from selling the generated electricity, generation plants accredited under the RO scheme receive 20 years of income from the sale of Renewable Obligation Certificates, which substantially increases the Solar Power Plants’ returns.

Foresight has been a leading pioneer in the European Solar market, having built a £310 million portfolio of solar assets in the UK, Italy and Spain with a capacity of 86MW. In 2011, Foresight raised more than £65 million in aggregate, which was mainly invested in UK Solar plants before April 2012 through Foresight Solar VCT and Foresight Solar EIS. In the recently published Interim Report the Board of Foresight Solar VCT announced an uplift in NAV to 102.5p and the interim dividend of 2.5p which will be paid on 12th April 2013.

Mike Currie, Partner of Foresight, explains: “When you think that enough solar energy reaches the earth every hour to meet the world’s energy consumption for a whole year, it’s heartening to know that even with last year’s record rainfall, our solar assets in the UK are all generating ahead of base case, delivering strong returns for our investors. We expect there to be considerable interest in this new share issue for Foresight Solar VCT.”

Foresight is an independent specialist private equity, infrastructure and environmental investor, which focuses primarily on investments in unquoted UK and European companies or projects and offers investors exclusive access to attractive income and growth opportunities.

Foresight has in excess of £650 million assets under management across a number of funds, including Limited Partnerships, Enterprise Investment Schemes (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs).

In the solar sector, Foresight’s solar funds have already invested in more than £310 million of operating PV assets in the UK, Italy and Spain.